Road to Rome
by penbadger
Summary: Jason thinks of what will be, while Piper is a welcome intrusion.


**JASON**

The sea breeze was cool that night. His skin tingled, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up slightly. His golden hair whipped gently and his hands gripped the railings a bit too tightly. It was definitely colder the more they drifted away from Camp Half-Blood.

Over the past months, his memory had started to come back. At this point, he had finally remembered everything and everyone completely. Hazel and Frank, two misfits in the fifth cohort: Hazel seemed too old-fashioned just like how his grandmother would act – assuming he had ever known his grandmother. Frank was the large-built, baby-faced klutz who always wound up checking the inventory or cleaning up after Hannibal the elephant. They were the best allies he had ever made. Gwen and Dakota were the fifth cohort's two Centurions. Gwen was the more encouraging one, always telling them they could win at the war games and keeping everybody's spirits up. Dakota, well, he was strict in his own sense, save for the face that he had a drinking problem – Kool-Aid and sugar ran through his veins instead of blood. There was Octavian. Jason never really had anything to say about him save the fact that he was one obnoxious person. He never really liked how he'd talk during senate meetings, or even how he would smile at Jason when they passed each other. He could swear that Octavian had something up his sleeve all the time, plotting with each step he took.

Thinking about finally getting back his old life did not make him feel as happy as he thought it would. Of course, getting his old life would be just fantastic, but there was also the matter of his new life at Camp Half-Blood.

There was Annabeth, whom he first met on a Pegasus. She had a regal air and was intelligent and stern, yet she was also gentle and understanding of Jason's situation seeing as Percy Jackson, her boyfriend, might also be experiencing the same. There was his sister, Thalia, whom he had never seen or remembered. She was different from him in terms of physical attributes, or any attributes for that matter, save for their electric blue eyes. Despite all that, he still felt that odd familial connection to her. He would often find himself in her comforting presence whenever he had any problems recalling anything – even though she knew nothing about his life. Thalia was the only one who could truly offer him any consolation. There was Chiron who had greeted him _You should be dead_, on his very first day at Camp Half-Blood. Not something anybody would like to hear on their first day of camp. He proved to be a compassionate and knowledgeable teacher, teaching him about the two camps and their Greek ways. There was Leo who claimed to be his best friend at the beginning and ended up really becoming his best friend. His quirky habit of keeping tools and gears in his pants and even putting them together every once in a while grew on Jason. He'd even ask Leo how the things he made worked and each time Jason couldn't comprehend, Leo would get frustrated and Jason would simply laugh at the whole thing. Then, there was Piper.

Jason sighed deeply and loudly. He could feel the breeze spray salt lightly onto his skin. His gripped tightened even more, his knuckles turning white in the process. Why was she such a touchy topic? It's not like she was anyone special, right? Of course, he had Reyna—

Right, there was Reyna.

Reyna was his fellow Praetor. They commanded the whole legion together, they planned everything together, most of their time they spent together. There was something that grew between them. He knew he liked her. The way her dark hair billowed majestically behind her like her purple cape; the way she would ride her Pegasus gracefully as though she were dancing in the sky. She was the closest Jason had to having an actual relationship with anyone – a romantic one, anyway. At times when they would plan for the war games, they would steal glances from one another atop maps. Their hands would touch accidentally – Jason would never admit to holding her hand – as they walked. Even how she'd given him her widest and brightest smile when no one was around, so he'd know that it was all for him, always gave him butterflies. But now, all it did was twist his stomach into knots. Guilt strangled his insides.

Piper was a different story. He had woken up at the back of a bus the both of them hand in hand. He remembered how soft her hands were. He remembered the first time he ever laid eyes on her; her choppy hair with braids on either side of her face; her prominent cheekbones beaming with her Cherokee heritage; her sweet smile and her slightly rosy lips. He could've sworn that his heart skipped a beat when he first saw her. To see somebody like that when you wake up, you would've thought you had died and gone to heaven. He remembered the time when they were in each other's arms falling a thousand feet a second. Their bodies fitted perfectly like puzzles pieces and he could tell that she felt how fast his heart was beating through his clothes. But, guilt once more brings him back to reality. He did not live a lie – thankfully. He lived a second life. But now, it was time to face his first life. How he would do it, he had no idea.

"Hey," Piper stood next to him, giving him that same sweet smile. "You should head to bed, we'll be arriving their tomorrow. You'll need all your strength."

"Yeah," he managed to say, yet his gaze remained fixated in the sea sparkling beneath the soft moonlight. "I'm all right."

She placed her hand on his. He felt her warm, soft hand on his skin. It felt great to have her hold his hand. His grip loosened and his body seemed to relax. He sighed and she gripped his hand tighter.

"You're hand's cold," she said with concern. He turned to look at her. Big mistake. She was a child of Aphrodite after all, so being beautiful no matter what time of day came with being claimed by the goddess of love and beauty. Her skin glowed faintly like his sister Thalia's did. Her eyes somehow became brighter and they still changed color. Her hair had grown and it somehow became less choppy, just a long wave of smooth and silky hair. Her lips were still rosy despite the blue tinge that came with the night.

"Jason," she said, inching a bit away from him. He had not noticed that his face had inched its way closer to hers. "Are you sure you're okay?" She placed her hand on his forehead. He could feel blush creeping on his cheeks and his mouth twitch into a smile, but he suppressed both – he tried, at the very least.

"I-I'm fine," he stammered. "Anyway, shouldn't you be off to bed too?"

Piper took her hand off his forehead and folded her arms over her chest. She looked at the sparkling sea and the light that came off it reflected in her eyes. He could not help but stare.

"I can't sleep," she said mostly to herself. "This whole seven demigods thing is kind of scaring me. I don't really know whether I could do anything at all, being the child of Aphrodite that is."

"Are you kidding me?" Jason said a bit more excitedly than what he would've liked. "I mean, you lulled Gaea back to sleep. You saved your dad from a giant. And, first off, you helped us when we went North by talking to the Lord of the North Wind!."

"That all came with being claimed as a child of Aphrodite," she said dismissively. "Any child of Aphrodite would have been born with the power of charmspeak. Look at Drew," she said with apparent distaste. "Anybody can be born with it."

"But not everybody has the guts to use it for what is right," Jason pointed out. "Piper," he started softly, "you have more power than you think. I'm sure of it."

"Probably," she said sarcastically. "But I'm telling you, I'm surprised that a child of Aphrodite would even be considered for the seven demigods who would fight the giants. I mean, what can we do? Charmspeak everyone to give up? Seriously, is that it?"

"You won't know how strong you are, sometimes, until a time of desperation comes before you." Jason said almost automatically. "I learned that while in Camp Jupiter."

"Right," Piper said, "the _other _camp; The Roman Camp. That's where you came from before all this, right?"

"Yeah," Jason said, carefully trying to decipher where Piper was leading to.

"I guess you missed them, huh?" She turned to smile at him. "I would miss them too if I had been taken away for weeks without any memory. I guess you're glad to be home then."

"Yeah," _somewhat_, he dared not say audibly. He felt that odd twisting in his stomach.

"Well, like I said," Piper said in an almost upbeat tone, "you should get some sleep. I'm pretty sure you have a lot of things to talk about with your friends tomorrow." She tapped his shoulder and turned on her heel. But before she could walk, and before he could think, he grabbed her arm.

She looked at him quizzically, her eyes changing color, distracting him from his thoughts. "What is it?" Piper said as softly as she could.

"Uhm," Jason started. _You grabbed her arm, now what will you say?_ His mind was panicking; eventually he came up with an answer. "Can you stay a while longer?" He could hear the mindslap echo in his head a hundredfold. That was a stupid question not to mention an embarrassing one – more like a desperate one.

She smiled and loosened up a bit, more like he started to melt. "I'll stay as long as you need me to, Pipes." With that, they stood next to each other, as close as they could without making it awkward. They stood in silence. Jason was fine with it, as long as he could feel her presence; he was fine if he had to stand there all night. It would be better if she would lean her head on his shoulder, but that literal gut-wrenching feeling filled him again telling him that he shouldn't think that way.

She was right. They had a long day ahead of them – in fact, a long couple of months. They will sail to Greece to defend the gods and defeat the giants. He does not have the leisure to think this way. Maybe, for now, he could. Before everything begins to happen; before everything begins to fall apart; before everything starts to rest on their shoulders, he should take pleasure in these moments – moments with her.

Before he knew it, the sun was rising. The sky was a gradient from bright yellow to blood red to blue. He didn't even notice it. No, he didn't, but when he did, he pretended not to notice that Piper's head was resting on his shoulder.


End file.
